Stream Temperature Data Collection Standards and Protocol of Alaska: Minimum Standards to Generate Data useful for Regional-scale Analyses.

摘要

As Alaskans continue to feel the impacts of a changing climate, the need for resource managers to understand how these changes will alter aquatic systems and fisheries resources grows. Water temperature data collection has increased in recent years to begin to fill our gaps in knowledge about current thermal profiles; however, with Alaska’s vast landscapes and ubiquitous freshwater habitats, the need for water temperature data is ongoing. Many entities are collecting temperature data for a variety of purposes to meet project or agency specific goals. Statewide interest in thermal patterns and increasing data collection efforts provides Alaska’s scientific and resource managing community an opportunity to meet broader regional-scale data needs. Adopting minimum standards for data collection will ensure comparability of generated data. The goal of this project is to define minimum (‘base’) standards for collecting freshwater temperature data in Alaska that must be met so that observations can support regional assessment of status and recent trends in freshwater temperatures and prediction of future patterns of change in these aquatic thermal regimes using downscaled climate projections. By identifying minimum data standards, our objective is to encourage rapid, but structured, growth in comparable stream temperature monitoring efforts in Alaska that will be used to understand current and future trends in thermal regimes. These trends will inform strategies for maintaining ecosystem resilience.